PROVIDENCE – Butler Hospital hosted a ceremony to commence the building of its new $17 million Patient Care Center on Tuesday.

The new three-story, 49,000-square-foot facility will be located on the Butler Hospital Providence campus at 345 Blackstone Blvd.

The facility will include an expanded Patient Assessment Services center and a new adult in-patient care unit.

At more than 17,000 square feet, the expanded PAS center will be more than twice the size of the hospital’s existing emergency room area.

The new facility will also include a 26-bed adult inpatient treatment unit on the third floor, increasing Butler’s licensed bed capacity from 117 to 143. The space will house both private and semi-private rooms.

“The new Patient Care Center will touch the lives of just about everyone in Rhode Island,” said Dr. Patricia Ryan Recupero, Butler’s president and CEO.

“We are so pleased to be able to address the need for expanded mental health care in Rhode Island, and we’re also proud to be bringing jobs to local businesses as this building is one of the largest private construction projects in the state,” added Recupero.

For the ceremonial foundation-digging, Recupero was joined by Stephanie Chafee, Care New England board chair George Shuster, Director of the R.I. Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals’ Craig Stenning, Amy Kinner – member of the Butler Patient Family Advisory Council and architect David Tidwell.

Butler anticipates opening the doors of the new center in the summer of 2013.

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